/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.11315711]

> Does anyone have any literature providing reference or instruction on living a simplier, more contemplative life?

Previous anon from >>11302346 here.

We had a previous thread expressing interest in living a more contemplative life through a simpler lifestyle. I, being a homesteader, chimed in. Some people expressed interest, but unfortunately the thread 404’d before I got to really answer anyone.

A lot of people are excited about living a slower more contemplative lifestyle, so I thought I’d be able to answer some questions. I’d also love it if we could pool together some resources for homesteading, living off the land, or otherwise living a hermit lifestyle.

If there’s no interest I’ll just let the thread 404. I’ll be responding on and off until the thread 404s, but I’ll do my best to answer everyone’s questions.

[Anonymous No.11315720]

>>11315711
> What’s your setup?
My house is an earthbag build. Earthbags were designed by an Iranian architect named Nader Khalili. The concept is simple, durable, cheap, and easy albeit labor intensive. Tamped earth in plastic bags are stacked atop one another with barbed wire sandwiched between. They can withstand floods, earthquakes, and fires with relative ease.

The land itself is about an acre and a half, way more than I actually need. I sell the rest via a local farmer’s market. I mostly use square foot, vertical gardening, and companion planting. I compost aggressively, and keep chickens and bees. Their names are Calliope, Sophia, Wednesday, and Borges.

I also grow flowers, mostly for my mom.

> How do you make money?
I sell around half of my produce and moonlight as a dog walker. I’d like to be a writer but that’s pretty far from me.

> How did you afford all this?
I dropped out of high school and entered the workforce immediately. I lived at home for seven years, worked 80 hours a week at various low-level jobs, and quickly had more than enough money to pay everything off. Looking back I probably could’ve swung it all with about 40k, but 60k is a more realistic estimate.

> Why did you decide to homestead?
Necessity. I have some pretty severe intellectual, emotional, and physical disabilities. Chronic pain, tinnitus, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc. People with intellectual disabilities tend to have anxious childhoods. We know that there’s no good or meaningful future ahead of us, so we’re caught in a feedback loop where we lose our present by dreading our future.

I resolved to die or figure out a solution. So I figured out a solution.

> What was adapting like?
The culture shock was immense. In retrospect I was going through detox. I went from constant work overload to what pretty felt like a screeching halt. Getting used to the quiet was hard. I also quit caffeine, nicotine, and dropped the quiet adderall addiction I had let fester over the years. The guilt was pretty bad, too. Protestant work ethic and all that stuff.

Once the haze wore off, probably about a month or two in, I felt better than I ever had in my entire life. I felt tremendous security and pride in the fact that I was directly feeding and caring for myself. I spent more time with my family, I slept better, ate better, and generally just felt like a person again. I felt a weight that I’d carried for a lifetime finally drop.

The phrase “you don’t know what you have til it’s gone” can be very positive.

[Anonymous No.11315739]

>>11315711
Why not just take your backpack and go join a buddhist monastery and live the monastic life as a monk? Pretty sure that's the definition of living the simple life.

[Anonymous No.11315740]

>Complete Works of Plato
>Enneads by Plotinus
>Complete Works of Dionysius the Areopagite
>Periphyseon by Eriugena
Should keep you going for a while

[Anonymous No.11315748]

Walden

[Anonymous No.11315750]

[Anonymous No.11315754]

The little flowers of st Francis

[Anonymous No.11315798]

>>11315711
>>11315720
Truly fascinating. I am not sure what contemplation really is but i recommend Thomas Merton; there is an unassuming authority to his books

[Anonymous No.11315803]

>>11315720
Do you have electricity/Internet in your place? If yes, how did you get it in/how difficult was it? What kind of modern luxuries do you allow yourself, if any? Is the farmers market your sole source of income?

[Anonymous No.11315809]

>>11315803
>>11315720
Also transport and travel, do you travel much? Do you use a car to get around? Are you even able to be away for long periods of time, from a week to a month?

[Anonymous No.11315817]

>>11315740
you've never read any of these

[Anonymous No.11316041]

>>11315803
Electricity is a pain. I try and use it sparingly since I still don't really understand solar panels that well. Doing the actual wiring was dead simple, though.

I got my wifi from phone tethering and coffee shops.

>>11315809
I've traveled some, but I try to avoid driving. To be honest I don't feel super comfortable driving. I have a really bad attention span, memory, and struggle with juggling ideas in my head. I have a friend who I let live in my place every now and then if I get the urge. Generally I choose not to travel, though. It's pretty dangerous for me.

I'm sure if you're clever you could maybe make some arduino automated garden set up, though. Aquaponics is generally hands off if you do it right

[Anonymous No.11316295]

Did you know that Hermit Purple might not actually be a stand unique to Joseph, but just the Ripple's stand ability? The Pillar Men might have already seen the vines, but as Dio wasn't excavated from the bottom of the ocean yet, Joseph couldn't. Just as in Steel Ball Run, the Tusk is the extension of the Spin.

[Anonymous No.11316699]

>>11315739
Or Mount Athos

[Anonymous No.11316785]

For me living a simple life is not so much living off the land as very straight forward simplicity by removing obligations.

So I'm on welfare and live a minimalist lifestyle so that I don't have to spend time on work or chores. I just strive to have as much of every day to myself to do with as I please.

[Anonymous No.11317235]

>>11316785
that image looks so fake

[Anonymous No.11317509]

>>11317235
It's real though. Back story if you're interested from an interview:

>Yes. I’ll tell you, apropos of that, this period of deep insomnia came to an end in France, and you know how? By the bicycle. It’s rather curious, this phenomenon, I was a bit like someone suffering hallucinations, I’d been in Paris a few months, and one day on the boulevard St. Michel someone offered to sell me a bicycle. It was a racing bicycle, not expensive at all. I said yes and bought it, which for me was a stroke of providence, unheard of luck. I went all over France with that bicycle, I’d be gone for months. Because I had come here on a grant for several years from the French government to do a thesis, from 1937 until the war, till 1940. It was for me to do a thesis in philosophy . . . Which I certainly did not! I never went to the Sorbonne, I lied. But with that I’d cover kilometers and kilometers, for months, I went all through the Pyrenees. I’d do a hundred kilometers a day. And it’s this physical effort that allowed me to sleep. I remember, France was very cheap before the war, I’d come into a village, I’d eat whatever I wanted, drink a bottle of wine, and then I’d go sleep in the fields. It was a very natural life, very healthy. Physical exercise morning till night. When you do a hundred kilometers a day, there’s no way you’re not going to sleep, it’s out of the question. So, it wasn’t due to medicine. Because I had, unfortunately for me, seen a lot of doctors in Romania and in France, and they all gave me medications that messed up my stomach and everything, that was the big danger, and even with sleeping pills I only managed to sleep two or three hours at most. And then I’d have a headache all day, it was horrible. I was poisoned from sleeping pills, I don’t take them anymore. And so, this providential bicycle saved me.

[Anonymous No.11319015]

>>11315711
bump

[Anonymous No.11319109]

>>11316785
>removing obligations
>is on government hand outs

[Anonymous No.11319701]

bump

[Anonymous No.11319935]

>>11315720
Where do you live? What's the weather like? Do you need heating in the winter?
Do you live far from the next city/town? Do you have neighbours? How far to the next dwelling/building? What about roads? What's the road to your place like?
Do you still own a car? You mentioned you didn't drive due to safety reasons, but you didn't say if you had a car. If you don't, how do you travel when you do?
Are your parents living? What family do you have that's close?
How old are you?
Do you pay taxes on what you sell at the market? How much (a very ballpark percentage would be fine, of course)? Do you pay rent for your stall? How much time do you spend there selling your wares? (I assume you do it yourself). Do you need a cash register or POS terminal? What's your best selling crop?
I don't know anything about the gardening stuff you mentioned; it sounds pretty sophisticated. I, for one, remember most fondly my grandma's garden, a most simple setup I suppose, where my job was to squish bugs ("Colorado beetles" my father called them), place the water hose in the tomato rows (small ditches or grooves in the ground in which the tomato plants sat to help channel the water to them--not sure what they're called in English) and snip away some of the lower branches of the tomato plant with a pair of scissors, in order to "encourage" the fruit bearing branches to yield larger tomatoes. Anyway, what I'm getting at is: gardening is pretty physical, time consuming work. How come you have so much more spare time than back when you were a wageslave? My dad and grandma and I did it for fun, basically. Nowadays and where I live, farmers who make a living out of their produce must have one family member (or, less often, a hired hand) spend the whole day at the market (they are literally there from before sunrise to after sunset, in the summer), they drive vans and trucks and they only make ends meet thanks to heavy EU subsidies (not that the EU doesn't make you work for those sweet subsidies--filling EU paperwork is not for the faint of heart or weak of intellect).
Finally: what's your general outlook on everything? Do you believe in God? What are your favourite books?
Sorry for all the autistically detailed questions and blogpost bits. I would be very grateful if you indulged my curiosity.

[Anonymous No.11321178]

bump

[Anonymous No.11321339]

>>11319935
Where do you live?
North Carolina!

What's the weather like?
Alright for crop growth. Hotter summers and springs, chilly autumns and winters. It’s gearing up to be a hot week.

Do you need heating in the winter?
Nope! I’m surrounded by such and such feet’s worth of compacted dirt so it’s an even temperature mostly. Plus part of the building’s buried under the earth.

Do you live far from the next city/town?
Far…ish. I’m always a little paranoid unfortunately, mental health and stuff, so I’m going to stay a little vague.

Do you have neighbours?
I guess it depends on how you define neighbors. Probably the closest neighbor for me is a mile out?

How far to the next dwelling/building?
About a mile

What about roads?
It’s hell when they ice over, but otherwise they’re pretty well maintained.

What's the road to your place like?
Oh it’s just boiler plate gravel. I’ve been trying to get some of these neat glow rocks thrown in but that’s more money than I’m willing to spend right now.

You mentioned you didn't drive due to safety reasons, but you didn't say if you had a car. If you don't, how do you travel when you do?
That’s a goof-up on my part. I drive sparingly since it’s dangerous for me and my fellow drivers. It’s really easy to get a driver’s license in the states. Everything’s too far apart to walk, realistically.

When I first got mine I struggled to remember the signs and the lady at the DMV was giving me hints. I mostly just drive for the necessities via familiar routes. I just walked everywhere when I was on my grind.

Are your parents living?
Yup! Part of the reason I moved out was because of them. I’d try and stay cooped up in my room since they sounded so much happier when I wasn’t there. That was one of my main motivating forces for moving out.

[Anonymous No.11321342]

>>11319935
>>11321339

What family do you have that's close?
I don’t know if I’m really close with anyone in my family.

How old are you?
I’m in my mid twenties now.

Do you pay taxes on what you sell at the market?
Yep! It’s all cash, but if the IRS finds out you’re skimming they’ll pretty much come for your life.

How much (a very ballpark percentage would be fine, of course)?
Playing fast and loose I’d want to say… 6-12%? I honestly just have software do it for me.

Do you pay rent for your stall?
Yep! Not much, like, 30 a week?

How much time do you spend there selling your wares? (I assume you do it yourself).
About 3 to 6 hours, depending on when it’s open.

Do you need a cash register or POS terminal?
Both’s good! But mostly you really just need a register.

What's your best selling crop?
People tend to like novelty crops. Purple carrots, chocolate mint, giant sunflowers, etc. In terms of growth vs buying power I’d probably say garlic, turmeric, or perennials in general.

How come you have so much more spare time than back when you were a wageslave?
Specialized tools, careful planting, and making sure I’m getting the most bang for my buck space-wise. Square foot gardening and vertical gardening let you carefully control what’s in the soil.
It’s definitely time consuming but nowhere near a 9-5. It’s usually more around a 9-12 or 9-1. Plus I’m working for something unabstract that directly benefits me.

[Anonymous No.11321349]

>>11319935
>>11321342

Finally: what's your general outlook on everything?
I guess my pov is pretty… unpalatable? I think that life is mostly bad, and that we’re driven towards pleasure and meaning. So it’s important to find stuff worth suffering for, because suffering is inevitable anyways. I think it’s immoral to have children because it’s wrong to force consciousness on something that can’t consent by definition.

I think that happiness is fleeting but that you can work on your baseline level of happiness. I think that’s important, mostly because it’s a way for me to feel like I’m spiting a universe that wants me to be miserable by default. So I do a lot of corny self-help garbage. Meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy workbooks, stuff like that. Overall I’d say I’m the happiest miserable human being on earth.I think that we have these refined sophisticated human brains on top of our animal brains, and that causes us to neglect our animal needs. It’s a hamster wheel thing, y’know? The reason why hamsters have hamster wheels is because if they don’t they snap and eat their hands. But I don’t think hamsters really think “boy I want a hamster wheel”, they just think their hands are delicious.

So I think similarly we need to address the core basic environment we need to sustain happiness, because otherwise you’re just slapping band-aids on a stabbing victim. Sleep, food, tribal contact, stuff like that. We need that more than short-term or imagined pleasure.

Do you believe in God?
I always thought that if God existed, it would be an impossible to understand abstraction. Like I think in the semitic storytelling tradition, when they said “god was angry” it was more of a poetic device like saying a storm’s angry. There’s this theologian named Boehme, a semi illiterate cobbler who when blasted with a beam of light, came up with a bunch of these ideas and abstractions of what God was.

In the beginning God was lonely. To understand himself, he divided into destructive and negative forces. When the show’s over, God pulls himself back together. That to me makes the most sense. God is entropy and disorder. So maybe something Spinoza-esque? I dunno. But to me human beings are driven towards order. We divided cycles into days, days into months, months into years. Invent holidays, names, categories for animals.

But I think some of the more gnostic ideas are appealing to? But yeah anyways I don’t know. I think if God didn’t exist we’d have to invent him fo sure. It’s too necessary of a manipulation tool, I say, as I tip my greasy fedora.

[Anonymous No.11321353]

>>11319935
>>11321349

What are your favourite books?
Ooo! We could go by genre.

Well, sci-fi wise The Sirens of Titan, The Lathe of Heaven, Stories of Your Life and Others, and House of Suns are some big favs.

So far as fantasy really enjoyed The Scar, The City of Dreaming Books, Bridge of Birds, and The Hobbit.

I’m a big fan of literature like Swann’s Way (Davis), The Brothers Karamazov, and Invisible Cities. I also have a huge soft-spot for Borges, John Williams, and Bulgakov.

You probably guessed I have a soft spot for kid’s stories from the fantasy section. Stuff like The 13 Clocks, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Dahl are some of my favorites.

Thank you for your questions! I especially loved the description of your grandma’s garden. That sounds very idyllic!

[Anonymous No.11322723]

>>11315711
bump

[Anonymous No.11322873]

>>11315739
Better yet, drop most (if not all) forms of entertainment and devote all your free time to the cultivation of the mind. If you're not fully convinced, but see lots of potential in the Buddhist path, this is the best way to go about it, coupled with regular visits to a zen center.